Shirley Robertson & Dee Caffari Go Double Handed for the 2022 Offshore Season

6th January 2022

Shirley Robertson (left) and Caffari will be sailing in a newly delivered Sun Fast 3300

Two of Britain's most decorated female sailors will be teaming up for the upcoming 2022 Double Handed Offshore Season. Dee Caffari and Shirley Robertson will be sailing together throughout 2022 in the UK Double Handed Offshore Series, racing a new Jeanneau Sun Fast 3300 supplied by SeaVentures UK. The pair will be racing in seven offshore races throughout 2022 culminating in the gruelling 1,805nm Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race.

One of the sport's most accomplished offshore sailors, Dee Caffari boasts a remarkable career that includes six laps of the planet, three of them solo. A maiden solo circumnavigation against the winds and tides, a sixth-place finish in the legendary Vendee Globe, and a double-handed circumnavigation in the Barcelona World Race have gone to make Dee the only woman ever to have sailed non-stop around the planet three times. Caffari has also twice completed the Volvo Ocean Race, in 2014/15 onboard 'Team SCA' and then in 2017/18 as skipper onboard 'Turn the Tide on Plastic'.

"Robertson and Caffari will be sailing in a newly delivered Sun Fast 3300"

Joining Caffari is one of the sport's most successful Olympic female sailors of all time, Double Olympic Gold medallist Shirley Robertson. With gold-medal wins in Sydney and Athens, Robertson was the first woman to helm a multihull on the groundbreaking Extreme Sailing Series, the forerunner to today's big stadium racing circuits, and is a regular on the superyacht racing circuit. In parallel to her sailing feats, Robertson has also forged a successful media career, presenting CNN's flagship monthly documentary series "CNN Mainsail" for over a decade. She is the face of Olympic sailing coverage for the BBC and played a key presenting role in coverage of the 36th America's Cup from Auckland, New Zealand.

Robertson and Caffari will be sailing in a newly delivered Sun Fast 3300, the boat both sailors raced throughout last season's offshore series. The 3300 is one of the go to race yachts of the growing double-handed scene and will be provided by Nigel De Q Colley's Sea Ventures UK.

Published in Rd Britain & Ireland, Women in Sailing, Scottish Waters

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THE RACE:

The 2022 Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race is organised by The Royal Ocean Racing Club in association with The Royal Yacht Squadron. It is run every four years

There have been nine editions of the Round Britain and Ireland Race which started in 1976
Sevenstar has sponsored the race four times - 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018 and has committed to a longterm partnership with the RORC

The 2022 Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race is a fully crewed non-stop race covering 1,805 nautical miles and is open to IRC, IRC Two Handed, IMOCA 60s, Class40s, Volvo 65s and Multihulls that will race around Britain and Ireland, starting from the Royal Yacht Squadron line in Cowes on the Isle of Wight starting after Cowes Week on Sunday 7 August 2022

The last edition of the race in 2018 attracted 28 teams with crews from 18 nations. Giles Redpath's British Lombard 46 saw over victory and Phil Sharp's Class40 Imerys Clean Energy established a new world record for 40ft and under, completing the course in 8 days 4 hrs 14 mins 49 secs.

The 1,805nm course will take competitors around some of the busiest and most tactically challenging sailing waters in the world. It attracts a diverse range of yachts and crew, most of which are enticed by the challenge it offers as well as the diversity and beauty of the route around Britain and Ireland with spectacular scenery and wildlife. Most sailors agree that this race is one of the toughest tests as it is nearly as long as an Atlantic crossing, but the changes of direction at headlands will mean constant breaks in the watch system for sail changes and sail trim

Published in Rd Britain & Ireland

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